Putin orders tightened security after bombings

December 31st, 2013

Peter Nolan

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered security to be stepped up across the country, following two separate suicide bombings in the southern city of Volgograd.

“Russian President Vladimir Putin has given a number of instructions to the National Antiterrorism Committee with the purpose of building up security across Russia,” an unnamed committee representative said on Monday.

“The president will receive daily reports from the National Antiterrorism Committee about the measures it has taken, as well as situation reports.”

Putin’s announcement came after an emergency meeting was held to discuss two separate bombings which Russian officials have described as terrorist attacks.

Earlier on Monday, at least 14 people were killed and over two dozen others were injured in an explosion on a trolley bus near a market in Volgograd.

On Sunday, a bomb attack was carried out at Volgograd’s main train station, leaving 17 people dead and wounding scores of others.

There have been no claims of responsibility for the blasts, which come ahead of the Sochi winter Olympic Games, scheduled to be held in February.

Volgograd is located in the volatile North Caucasus region, some 900 kilometers (560 miles) south of the capital, Moscow.

In October, a bus was blown up in Volgograd, killing six people and wounding more than a dozen others.

Russia has been fighting militants since the mid 1990s in its North Caucasus region, where the republics of Chechnya, Dagestan, and Ingushetia have been the scene of sporadic attacks and militant clashes.

Violence erupted in Chechnya in 1994, when 250,000 people were forced to flee to neighboring territories because of a war between Chechen separatists and the Russian army.

Some 100,000 people were killed and thousands more displaced in the conflict.

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